Phil Rosenthal

ColumnistWriter

Phil Rosenthal joined the Tribune as media columnist in 2005. He previously was a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, Los Angeles Daily News and The Capital Times of Madison, Wis., specializing in sports, television and pop culture. He believes most people skip over these bios.

Recent Articles

Thanks a lot, Nike. The Bulls have a slender strand of hope for redeeming this awful season, and it threatened to rip like a poorly made shoe. Watching Zion Williamson of Duke go down with a knee injury Wednesday night and burst-apart shoe in the first minute of the top-ranked Blue Devils’ loss...

So the Cubs no longer are the team you’ve known and loved all these years. You’ve soured on the owners, their politics, their embrace of players whose actions you find abhorrent, their way of doing business and/or Joe Ricketts’ emails. The confines of Wrigley Field no longer seem so friendly. Perhaps...

The Alliance of American Football’s efforts to speed up the game apparently are not limited to the field. The Alliance, it seems, came perilously close to running out of money heading into Week 2 of its debut season, which, while perhaps not a record, is very fast work nevertheless. All that saved...

A TV show that ends nearly every episode the same depressing way is a TV show few people will go out of their way to watch. Little wonder the Bulls have been a bust on NBC Sports Chicago this season. As the losses grow, so does viewer ambivalence. They have, at 14-44, become the rare car wreck...

The resentment is real and understandable. Cubs fans who — either on principle or out of necessity — won’t pay to subscribe to a cable, satellite or streaming service are upset at the prospect of not being able to watch the team on WGN-9 or ABC-7 after this season. Save for the handful of games...

Pat Hughes and Ron Coomer’s Cubs broadcasts on WSCR-AM 670 will remain as free as sunshine and a summer breeze. So there’s solace, perhaps, for those who don’t want to or can’t pay for a cable, satellite or streaming service to watch the Cubs on television once the team’s Marquee Sports Network...

So the Cubs finally have unveiled their long-anticipated, much-discussed plan to start their own cable television channel. The Cubs’ Marquee Sports Network will launch in partnership with Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2020. What else can I tell you? This is going to cost me, isn’t it? Yep, but you...

With spring training starting, let’s take a little batting practice. Here are nine innings worth of cuts: 1. After reading Manny Machado was spotted with Kyle Schwarber at the baptism for Albert Almora Jr.’s son, I want more Manny news. I want to know where he is at all times and who is with him....